Extraterrestrial Life and Development of Astronomy

There is an increasingly amount of evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Just recently, the United States body judged with space exploration successfully landed its first synthetic object on Mars to search for traces of life. On the other hand, the Vatican has acknowledged the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms through its head astrologer, Father Funes. What make these incidents important to astrology are the claims of using myths that have been directed against astrology from both religion and science. It is important to remember that Vatican tried Galileo Galilei because of his astrological discovery that rubbed shoulders with the teachings of religion during those times. Four centuries down the line, the Vatican not only acknowledged that the Earth revolved around the sun but also that there could be other forms of life existing on other bodies in the universe. This paper explores the importance of the search of extraterrestrial life to the development of astronomy and the next steps in the event of discovering life forms elsewhere.

According to Koerner & LeVay (2001), astronomy is one of the oldest sciences that have contributed to human understanding of objects that originate from outside the atmosphere. For a long time, astronomy has faced controversies from the religious organizations and other sciences over its dependence on myth as a basis for its prediction of extraterrestrial objects. This objection was probably epitomized by the trial and sentencing of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Empire over his finding that the Earth was just one of the many heavenly bodies that revolved around the sun. The common view was that the Earth was at the center, and everything else including the sun revolved around it.

With every indication of existence of extraterrestrial life being discovered every day, astronomy is slowly overcoming its dismissal by the religious leaders as atheistic science. The evidence of extraterrestrial life is important to astronomy because it will resuscitate a historical study that was on the brink of extinction and help attract the interest of modern scientists. For the first time, a continued search for extraterrestrial life has led Vatican to acknowledge the possibility of such life forms. Faced with the reality of extraterrestrial life, the Mirror of Aphrodite (2012) observes that the Vatican astrologer accepted astronomy as a science that could help in the opening of both minds and hearts of people while making them acknowledge and fear God. There is also an understanding of the idea that astronomy has led to an atheistic view of the universe is mythical.

The human quest for discovery of life forms in other planets apart from the earth is one of the noblest ventures. Bennett (2011) observes that human beings have not fully understood their existence and argue that a continued search for life forms will help in unlocking the hidden misery about human life. Similarly, exploration of other planets may help end the controversy between quantum physics, spirituality, and divinity.

In conclusion, establishing the existence of life forms on other planets will be followed with research on how to land human beings in those planets safely and establish communication links with the new life forms.